Putting the wraps on our 2021 flying season in style!

Phil Cooke travels to Llandudno and reports from the final event of the season 9th / 10th October.

Despite a recent procession of events as we played ‘catch up’ following the deferred start to our flying season, energies were still high within the group for this – our final planned flying meet of the year. After an excellent run from home I was on site at The Great Orme for 08:30 but I was not the first to arrive in the car park!

Saturday proved a little frustrating from a flying perspective.  We had a good attendance by mid morning but the winds were light for the majority of the day and although the site was all set up ready to go there was very little PSS flying we could do until mid afternoon.  Thermal gliders and electric assist was the order of the day, for the time being at least.  The XC forecast suggested the conditions would change for the better in the afternoon, which thankfully proved to be spot on.  As conditions changed, floaters were swapped for sports slopers, and then the lightest of PSS models started to be introduced to the slope edge with the trusted Vulcans of Chris Barlow and Peter Garsden leading the field.  The winds finally started to pick up properly about 3pm, bang on to the South West facing slope and soon after we were flying well with all types of PSS model – a worthy reward for all those who had stuck it out on site since breakfast!

Despite the winds, conditions were still a bit gloomy and overcast with the odd light shower too, and as a result, following our slow start, my camera remained in the car during this flying slot meaning I have no photos from the Saturday!   Everyone was actively flying using the limited time left before dusk.  Key highlights for me were the two Fouga Magisters built and flown by Bob Jennings and Jez Billington – the lights fitted to both models working really well in the murky conditions.  Joining us again following his recent success at this years Mass Build Event, James Archer was flying his NASA chase plane Sabre to good effect, and Al Gorham test flew his new slightly smaller, EDF conversion F-86.  The usual variety of Hawks, Jet Provosts and Mustangs were all flown well too in the couple of hours we had been granted before we had to end the day to make our planned group evening meal at The Queens Head in Glanwydden.

Sunday dawned much brighter with stunning clear blue skies and a nice North Westerly breeze from the off.  We met in the lower grass car park and following the pilots brief at 10am we set up site and commenced activity in what proved to be a great days flying from the NW Café slope.  The light from this position is superb – particularly in the morning with the sun on our backs – and the models looked so vivid and sharp against the magnificent backdrop we were enjoying.  Despite the good light, pilots are always in two minds about this slope, the lift and flying is great but the landings can be challenging with the small field behind bounded by the Marine Drive toll road and the dividing stone wall – its not for the feint-hearted and some of the bigger, less manoeuvrable models simply aren’t suited to landing here.

That said there was some real skill on show.  Some of the very best landings of the day have to be credited to Chris Barlow with his A-10 Thunderbolt II – with which he enjoyed a number of flights throughout the morning and afternoon sessions.  Chris was able to bleed the speed and dump the lift in a very controlled manner and quite routinely dropped the little ‘Tankbuster’ into the field with apparent ease!  John Hey was seen flying his smaller all foam GWS A-10 to good effect too – both models looking great in the sunshine.  Simon Cocker had joined us for day 2 and it was great to see him flying his venerable Myasishchev M-4 ‘Bison’ bomber, a veneered foam model designed and built by Simon way back in the mid 1980’s, the model still going strong and flying as well as it ever did!  As usual Simon’s transmitter was passed around quite a bit and a number of pilots enjoyed some stick time on this excellent, historic jet bomber.

Tim Mackey and Steve Kemp put on another superb show with their Windrider Airbus A380s, at times flying some really impressive formation passes.  These 72” span models never fail to impress, they’re ever so stable, have real presence in the air and look most realistic just stooging around the slope.  Flown as a pair like this they are show stoppers!

Gordon Studley and Martin Gay complimented the A380 flying with another successful flight with their O/D Airbus A320, newly finished in the classic British Midland livery, a link to Gordon’s wife who used to work as an air-hostess on this very type.  The inner fighter pilot got the better of Martin, who after flying a few minutes of sedate scale airliner like passes (and much to Gordon’s ‘delight’)  put the aircraft through a few barrel rolls which we all agreed it handled very well!

Peter Garsden was active throughout the day with a range of models.  His BAC Canberra (built from the Andy Blackburn plans) always looks superb when flown in sunny skies with it’s Red White and Blue scheme from the Royal Aircraft Establishment.  As well as the Canberra, Peter also flew his Mass Build Hurricane and F-86 Sabre, both of which went well in the good strength lift we were enjoying.  Al Gorham flew his unique Hawker Henley at length, which appears to have become his current ‘go to’ model – an ideal mount now proven in a range of slope conditions (including flat calm) with its EP assist and folding prop when required.  As well as the Henley, Al put on a spirited display with his Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien which did some lovely arching top-side passes for the camera, and throughout the session his new Sabre (having been test flown the day before) was refined and retested with apparent success!

Mid afternoon we temporarily landed out and pulled all the pilots together for a group photo, now we are able to do so legally once again – a great memento from a good days flying!

Later in the day Simon Cocker flew his large DH Venom in his usual style – lots of high energy diving passes for the camera which always impresses.  At the same time Andy Meade enjoyed a lengthy flight with his superb mid-sized Hawker Typhoon, built from the Brian Taylor power plans.  Quite similar in size and weight to the Venom the Typhoon was put through its paces with a series of similar passes in from over the café resulting in some excellent Typhoon/Venom tail chase moments.

 

At the end of his flight, instead of fighting the model into the tight landing zone, Andy elected to walk to the top of the hill with the model in good lift over the slope and following a realistic square approach he landed the Typhoon along the smooth NW facing path at the Tank Track site – something which I think he really enjoyed doing – definitely the way to go with bigger models flown from the café slope when the lift is sound.

The range of models flown was really quite vast, such were the conditions we were enjoying.  Steve McLaren had a good couple of flights with his Panavia Tornado GR1, built by Steve from the Andy Conway plans and still looking good in its wrap around RAF camo scheme after a number of seasons in service! Harry Twist flew a number of his models too, the RAF P-51B Mustang and Shorts Tucano both proving to be superbly suited to the conditions throughout the day.  Towards the end of the session Simon Cocker enjoyed a lengthy flight with his Lockheed U-2S in NASA house colours, again the transmitter was handed around to a number of pilots for some reconnaissance stick time during the long sortie flown.

The Sunday was a superb days flying from start to finish, a great way to bring our busy 2021 flying season to a close.  More photos from this event can be viewed HERE.  A massive thanks to everyone who travelled long distances to fly with us at this event, after our 7 events run that’s it for a while now but I’m sure like me you’re looking forward to some winter building time in readiness for the 2022 season!